Every other Friday, the 11 novelists of The Society of YA Storytellers will blog on a common topic. This week it’s “Creepy & Lovin’ It”. To kick off the very first Fun Friday, I’ve got a special treat. Here’s a creepy excerpt from the yet to be released 5th book in the Midnight Guardian series, Book of the Lost. Enjoy!
–Excerpt-
Arden’s heart pounded fiercely in his chest.
“August!” he yelled, yet the other guardian was nowhere in sight.
The forest was dark, completely dark. The forever night sky, without benefit of moon or stars, would have made navigating the West Woods of Atlantis difficult. The added winding web of tree roots and underbrush made it nearly impossible.
The air was still as if the forest were a living thing, holding its breath. Not even the insects dared to make a sound. Each shaky exhale seemed as loud as a dinner bell.
Arden took another backward step…and so did she.
“August!” Arden yelled again. His forehead wrinkled with worry and the extra push that he gave his voice.
“Don’t move,” came August’s voice more slight than a whisper.
“Right,” Arden breathed.
It wasn’t like there was anywhere he could go. That last step put his body against a cypress with a trunk as wide as three feet, maybe more. He pushed against it with his back. The bark dug through his thin shirt and scratched the skin beneath.
Arden held his hands out to his sides. Not that it would help. It certainly didn’t slow his heart which was beating so rapidly that it might just break through his ribs; nor did it ease the predator that anxiously sniffed the air before him.
The bark. Arden tensed, but the damage was already done. The warmth of the new scratches on his back told him what he already knew. He was bleeding. He was bleeding in the presence of a werewolf.
This was not Arden’s first hunting trip to the West Woods on the banished continent of Atlantis. In his family, every male was brought to this place at least once to hunt. It was a rite of passage of sorts. His father and brothers brought him to the woods when he was ten before the start of his formal guardian training in Elsted. Many creatures made their homes in the concealment of the woods; most of them predators. It was a place for adventurers. He remembered the excitement of that hunt.
Arden tried to latch on to that memory. Draw strength from it. Back then, they had kept to the perimeter where it was safer. Back then he was armed with a hunting rifle. Back then he was surrounded by family. Back then he wasn’t the bait.
—
Check out all the goodies and fun to be had at The Society for YA Storytellers website at yastorytellers.com, on Twitter @yastorytellers, on Facebook www.facebook.com/YAstorytellers, and join the Society’s Online Book Club where you can discuss the book with the author, at Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/113416-ya-storytellers-book-club.